While a national agents’ group is praising the House for including its members in comprehensive health insurance reform, it is also voicing concerns over other provisions of the bill.

Jon D. Spalding

The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) said a provision in the Affordable Health Care for America Act (HR 3962) allowing agents to sell health policies offered through newly formed exchanges is a good move. The bill was passed 220-215 by the House Nov. 7 and will be reconciled with a Senate version before reaching President Barack Obama.

“The inclusion of this provision assures that no matter what, consumers will continue to be able to rely on their local professional insurance agent to help them navigate the maze of choices available, both inside and outside these proposed health insurance exchanges,” PIA National President Jon D. Spalding said in a statement. “This provision needs to be preserved in the Senate.”

While that provision met with approval, the agents’ group, representing professionals in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, also pointed out concerns it hopes are “fixed or removed in the Senate.”

Mike Becker, director of federal affairs for the PIA, said the association has concerns about a provision designating the Small Business Administration “to design what is, in essence, a government-run insurance agency for small business.” The bill, he said, allows the SBA to provide educational activities to small businesses, distribute information and enrollment and plan selection assistance for employers for plans through the exchange.

“In short, the SBA would be required to perform the functions of an insurance agency or brokerage for small groups of under 100,” Becker said. “PIA opposes this provision because it is unnecessary and it has the federal government set up insurance brokerages in competition with the private sector. Professional, independent insurance agents and brokers already perform all of the services for consumers that the bill would require the SBA to provide. The SBA provision is unnecessary, duplicative and creates needless federal expenditures.”

The PIA also worries that HR 3962 would permit the Federal Trade Commission to prepare studies and reports on the entire industry, saying such a broad “grant of authority has no place in a bill addressing health care.”

The group also opposes the repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson limited antitrust exemption for health and medical malpractice insurance, a move it feels would “disrupt the industry’s business environment and create substantial legal uncertainty and unnecessary litigation.

“The antitrust provisions included in HR 3962 would have no benefit on health insurance premiums, as the CBO reports, but would spur frivolous litigation,” Becker said. “No good would come as a result of these provisions, only more costs and more litigation. We recommend the Senate address these concerns by removing the antitrust provisions from their version of the bill.”